Information Management: thirty years and still going strong
Geoff Barnard
September 2006 saw the 30th Anniversary Workshop of the EADI Information Management Working Group (IMWG). Hosted by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), in Brighton, it provided a chance to celebrate the achievements of the Group, rediscover some of those 1970's dance moves, and look forward and engage with today's information challenges - focusing in particular on two themes: research communication and open access archiving.
Getting better at research communication
What is the point of doing research if nobody gets to hear about it? Development research is about making a difference in the world, and communication is clearly central to this. But in too many cases communication is still a hasty end-of-project activity, rather than being integral to the whole research process. How can we get better at this, both as research organisations and as a community as a whole?
Research communication is definitely coming onto the radar, as was shown in a pre-workshop survey designed to map out current thinking and practices. Seventy percent of those who responded said that it is already high on their agenda. Some research funders are waking up to it too. The UK Department for International Development (DFID) has been one of the most proactive. Dylan Winder, from their Central Research Department, told the Workshop how DFID uses a 'carrot and stick' approach to encourage more ambitious communication thinking. At the proposal stage, grants applicants need to demonstrate a demand for the research and show how they expect their findings to have an impact. They also need to allocate at least 10% of the project budget for communications work. Successful consortia need to develop a detailed communication strategy during the six-month inception phase. Progress is then reviewed as part of the regular reporting cycle, to make sure it happens.
For 'communication champions' in research organisations, having a supportive funder makes a big difference. It means research communication has to be taken seriously, and cannot be seen as optional extra. For DFID the logic is clear. They have committed to doubling their research budget, but they need to see greater impact from their research investment in terms of development objectives, and this means more effective communication.
But how does research have an impact on policy and practice? Most now accept that the traditional linear model where research is disseminated to target audiences, who then assimilate this new knowledge and act upon it, is far too simplistic. The world is more complicated than that, and research is just one of many competing factors influencing policy decisions and changes in practice.
The Overseas Development Institute's 'RAPID framework' is one a new generation of models that help to explain these complexities and point toward practical strategies for achieving policy influence. Enrique Mendizabal, from ODI, sketched out the Framework, which identifies four broad sets of issues that affect how research is used, ignored or reinterpreted by policymakers: the political context, the nature of the evidence, the linkages between key stakeholders, and the external influences.
Recognising these complexities is an important first step in planning a research communication strategy. Making it happen is another matter. Workshop participants were asked in the background survey what they saw as the main barriers preventing their research from having a greater impact. The graph below shows their answers.
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Notes: figures based on 17 responses. Scale: 4 = very important 1 = not important
Lack of incentives for researchers to put in the effort needed to communicate with non-academic audiences came out as the biggest barrier. For most researchers, career progression is still primarily determined by their success in getting material published in peer reviewed books and journals, rather than in reaching wider audiences, so this undoubtedly affects attitudes. Lack of communication skills among researchers and the need to strengthen communication units, also came out as important barriers, as did the problem of information overload among target groups and the need to engage with them earlier on in the research process. Interestingly, the response on funding was more mixed. For some it is a very important barrier, but for others, less so; clearly a lot depends on where you are sitting.
To explore these realities further we took inspiration from Oprah Winfrey. Clare Gorman, Communication Officer at IDS, hosted a 'chat show', inviting three experienced research communicators to share what they had learned over the years. The 'guests' - Liz Carlile (from IIED), Jesper Linnell (from DIIS), and Jo Wheeler (from IDS) - talked of the challenges of working as communicators alongside research colleagues, and the importance of embedding communications within research programmes right from the beginning. Their concluding advice was to be patient, to keep working on personal relationships with researchers, since teamwork is vital, and to be curious and stay open to new ideas on how to do research communication better.
Open Access Archiving
This was the second main workshop theme. Five speakers led us through the minefield of concepts and acronyms that litter this fast emerging field. Open access archiving is about making publications (and other material) available online, free-of-charge, in standard formats that make them easy to access and share, but with due recognition to copyright and licensing restrictions. It is distinct from open access publishing, which is also a hotly debated topic, with the main question centring on how to ensure quality and how to finance the production costs of free-to-access publications.
The advantages of open access archiving are compelling. For researchers the benefits include increased downloads and citations, and having a single place where all their work can be stored and made available. For research organisations it provides a permanent record of all their digital output, in one secure location, complementing other publishing channels rather than replacing them. More and more organisations, especially universities, are starting to set up archives - either subject or institution based - and there is a new generation of initiatives, such as the Connecting Africa project (led by the Africa Studies Centre in Leiden), that link different archives together to make them easier to search.
Problems of getting copyright clearance from publishers to host material in open access archives seem to be diminishing. There are also technical issues to deal with in setting them up, and making them as easy as possible to use. But one of the biggest challenges is to get buy-in from researchers. They need to make the effort to make sure their publications are uploaded, and this means a change in working practices and yet another thing for busy researchers to remember.
Again, it comes down to incentives and expectations. For it to really take off there needs to be a clear signal from senior management that open access archiving is seen as a priority, and a core element of their institutional communication strategy.
Looking back - looking forward
The Working Group first met in 1976, a year after EADI was established. After thirty years, we believe our work is more relevant than ever. Technologies have come and gone, and roles have evolved, with communications becoming part of the core skill set, alongside librarianship. But it is striking how many of the challenges have stayed the same - from the practical issues of taking advantage of new technologies to the wider challenge of being more effective in supporting the work of Southern research partners. Over the years, the Group has spawned several important information initiatives - including IDIN, El@and and Eldis. But its most valuable contribution has been a human one. It has provided a regular venue for meeting with counterparts, getting to know each other, sharing experience (and frustrations), and establishing friendships across national and institutional boundaries. We agreed these should remain at the core of our mandate for the years to come.
More information on the Workshop can be found at www.ids.ac.uk/eadi-imwg. This includes results of two background surveys on the current status of research communication and e-libraries among EADI members, plus material from a practical session on the new generation of more interactive web tools, collectively dubbed Web 2.0.
Geoff Barnard is Head of Information at IDS, and one of the four co-convenors of the EADI-IMWG.
© EADI Newsletter 2/2006
